Manchester United will host a special service at Old Trafford this Tuesday, 6 February, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster.

The ceremony is open to all supporters wishing to attend, as club staff and special guests, including the families of those who were on board the ill-fated flight, pay their respects to the 23 passengers who lost their lives in 1958.

The short service will commence at 2.40pm, with turnstiles at the Lower East Stand open from 1.30pm.

A minute’s silence will be held at 3.04pm, marking the time of the fatal crash in 1958, whilst the ceremony will also include readings from club directors Sir Alex Ferguson, Michael Edelson and Ed Woodward. A rendition of Flowers of Manchester will follow the silence, and there will also be a performance from the Manchester United Foundation Youth Choir as well as music from Elliot Brass.

Supporters are kindly reminded that the usual security checks will be in operation, including the complimentary bag-drop facility outside the East Stand, with large bags not permitted inside the ground.

Once the ceremony starts at 2.40pm, the turnstiles will be closed. However, anybody who arrives after that time will be able to watch a live television feed on a screen outside the stadium, on the forecourt close to the Munich clock.

A limited number of parking spaces will be available in the E2 and N3 car parks, on a first come, first serve basis with access from Sir Matt Busby Way via Wharfside Way only.

CLUB MEDIA COVERAGE

MUTV will broadcast a special live show from 2pm-4pm, covering the service at Old Trafford and featuring footage from the memorial events taking place in Belgrade and Munich. The full day of programmes dedicated to the air disaster will be free to view in the UK and Ireland on Sky channel 418.

The two-hour show will later be made available on demand on MUTV.com, again for free, enabling as many fans as possible around the world to see what happened during the service.

60 years on, and with each year the pain intensifies that these great players never got to show us how good they could become.
We thank you for what you gave us whilst you were with us,
We've mourned you since you left us.

A very sad and emotional day in our clubs history. Even for those of us who were not born at the time growing up with tales of the Busby Babes and learning of the terrible events 60 years ago today leaves a lasting impression.

Still astonishing 60 years on how people still recall how great Duncan Edwards was. 'The greatest player in the world' was one description.
It may seem seem like hyperbole but when Sir Bobby Charlton says that he couldn't get near him it shows what he player he was and would have gone on to become.

Some real heroes emerged from that;Jimmy Murphy who had to carry that team,Albert Quixall,Harry Gregg and more...
It was the reason my dad became a fan and I grew up steeped in the history of the Busby Babes. It was then great to watch a team built round Best,Law and Charlton go on to lift the European Cup.

I wasn't alive back then. I grew up in Kent and started supporting Utd 'on a whim' at the age of 6.

Like many, learning and understanding the significance of Munich redefined my relationship with the club. It was no longer a random choice of a child, but a statement of how to deal with and overcome adversity.

I can still remember a BBC documentary from the eighties I think, which was narrated by John Motson. I think this is the first time I saw the picture of the empty programme for the Sheffield Wednesday game, and whenever I think of this programme over the years I always need to adjust my eyes. Years later on the night of Sir Matts death I arrived home from the pub and after discovering the news got my girlfriend to drive the couple of hours to Manchester that evening so I could stand outside Old Trafford and pay my respects (like many others who were there) to the great man.

The loss to Manchester United was immense, but over time this has become the rock on which Manchester United was forged anew.

Still astonishing 60 years on how people still recall how great Duncan Edwards was. 'The greatest player in the world' was one description.
It may seem seem like hyperbole but when Sir Bobby Charlton says that he couldn't get near him it shows what he player he was and would have gone on to become.

Some real heroes emerged from that;Jimmy Murphy who had to carry that team,Albert Quixall,Harry Gregg and more...
It was the reason my dad became a fan and I grew up steeped in the history of the Busby Babes. It was then great to watch a team built round Best,Law and Charlton go on to lift the European Cup.

They will never be forgotten

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Not sure Quixall belongs in that list. He didn't do a great deal beyond getting signed for a record fee following the disaster.

Despite the media propaganda narrative, this club is about more than Money. It is about more than football. Our respects to the families and players that never had the chance to realise their dreams. These dreams will live on as the embodiment of the club.

As football has remembered in recent days, 60 years ago, on February 6, 1958, the British European Airways Elizabethan class aircraft carrying the Manchester United team home from Belgrade crashed on its third attempt to take off from the slush-covered runway of Munich-Riem airport.

Twenty of the 44 people on the aircraft died in the crash; three more died later in hospital.

Eight of the dead were young men, part of the Busby Babes team which had won the First Division championship in the previous two seasons and had just beaten Red Star Belgrade to reach the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Another eight of the dead were journalists who had covered the match; they were among the finest football writers of the day.

Manchester United marked the 60th anniversary of the Munich disaster with a minute’s silence before the match against Huddersfield on Saturday and there will be a service at Old Trafford on February 6.

The journalists have their own special tribute, too – a book significantly titled The Day TWO Teams Died*, the team of journalists as well as the team of footballers.

A chapter in the book is devoted to each of them: who they were, what they did, and how they chronicled the excitement of the Busby Babes.

The book is the work of Carl Abbott, Professor of Construction Innovation at Salford University, and Roy Cavanagh, who has written a several books about United players. As a retired sports journalist, I declare an interest: Carl and Roy are donating 50 per cent of the profit from the sales of the book to the Journalists’ Charity.

The book is more than a salute to the journalists who died. It is social history as well as journalism history. In the foreword, David Walker, sports editor of the Daily Mirror and former chairman of the Sports Journalists’ Association (whose birthday coincides with the date of the tragedy), writes:

“The social strata linking players, football management and the media was very different. It was the Daily Mirror’s Archie Ledbrooke who lived in leafy Bramhall while Matt Busby and his players lived around Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the inner city.”

Walker writes of Henry Rose: “He drove to matches in his Jaguar car and his arrival in the press box, usually with a cigar jutting from his mouth, would be announced over the club PA system. At this time, the only United player with a car was skipper Roger Byrne who drove a Morris Minor 1000.”

Carl Abbott comes from a long line of United fans and there’s some printer’s ink in his veins, too – his grandfather was a United season-ticket-holder and steward and a printer with the Manchester Evening News. Abbott says: “By writing this book, we hope we will enable a new generation of football fans to appreciate those great writers and, in doing so, learn about the Babes from the perspective of football fans of that era.”

Roy Cavanagh says: “I was ten at the time of the disaster and I remember the times vividly, particularly as I lived close to Old Trafford and I had seen the Babes. I have done biographies of Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Dennis Viollet and Billy Whelan. One aspect of the disaster has been missing, however: the loss of eight of the finest journalists one could imagine.”

*The Day TWO Teams Died by Roy Cavanagh and Carl Abbott (Amazon paperback, £8). It is also available on Kindle.